Friday, December 02, 2005

New Hampshire Very Much Minority Report

As foretold in the sneaked report, the anti-gay majority of the New Hampshire state commission to study marriage spit on homosexuals. As predictable, the minority report harshly criticized the results. Both sides have nothing but ill to speak of the other.

Animosity from the commission chair, Republican (need that be said) Rep. Tony Soltani extended to reporter Beverley Wang, whose article on the results appear here. She noted that he accused her of misquoting him but did not provide any specifics.

Her recap of the majority version includes:

(Recommendation) against gay marriage or civil unions and recommended amending the New Hampshire Constitution to limit marriage to unions between one man and one woman.

The majority said gay marriage is not a civil rights issue, that homosexuality is a choice because no "gay gene" exists, and that more study is needed before New Hampshire allows adoption for same sex couples. Gays and lesbians can adopt in New Hampshire, but only as single parents.

Of course, the minority had taken the charge to study marriage seriously and disagreed with the lack of any meaningful analysis or respect for citizen testimony. Its opposition report included, "We in the minority believe that the majority report evidences nearly a complete failure to address the commission's mandate." This version supported either same-sex marriage or civil unions.

It continued:

In part, the majority accomplished so little because the commission sought more to put gay people on trial than to consider the full scope of policy issues before it. Throughout its proceedings, the majority forced the commission to plod through antiquated and demonizing debates about whether gay men and lesbians are psychologically stable, transmit disease through acts of sexual intimacy, or are biologically aberrant.

Bizarrely enough, Soltani said that he was "disappointed by the minority report." He accused it of attacking individual majority members and said he "would be embarrassed to submit that."